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Media Parrots Hamas’ Death Toll Lies — Shows No Interest in Fact-Checking or Accountability
A Palestinian Hamas terrorist shakes hands with a child as they stand guard as people gather on the day of the handover of Israeli hostages, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
The war in Gaza resumed last week, after Hamas rejected a ceasefire extension that would have required it to release the remaining Israeli hostages — half of whom are now believed to be dead. In response, Israel carried out targeted airstrikes.
Meanwhile, the Iranian regime’s other terror proxy, the Houthis, joined the assault — launching a ballistic missile from Yemen as Hamas also fired rockets from Gaza. The Houthi strike sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians scrambling for shelter early Sunday morning.
On March 18, the Israeli Air Force eliminated multiple senior Hamas leaders, including the head of its interior ministry and the operations chief of its internal security arm. These were significant, surgical hits.
Because these were the IDF’s first major operation since January’s temporary ceasefire, the strikes were bound to make headlines. What’s troubling, however, is how swiftly the media reverted to old habits — once again parroting Hamas’ death tolls without a trace of skepticism or context.
It was a grim rerun of October 2023’s Al-Ahli Hospital debacle, where major news outlets rushed to blame Israel for a blast — later proven to be a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket — that struck a hospital parking lot, not the hospital itself, and killed a fraction of the “500” initially claimed. But Hamas knew it didn’t need facts — it could count on compliant journalists to amplify the lie.
And here we are again.
On Tuesday, headlines across The New York Times, CNN, AP, BBC, The Guardian, TIME, and others all regurgitated the same line: “More than 400 people killed, mostly women and children, in Gaza’s deadliest day since November 7.”
Their source? “Gaza’s Health Ministry.”
A few outlets mumbled, almost apologetically, that this “ministry” is run by Hamas. Even fewer explained that Hamas doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Airstrikes were carried out to target senior Hamas leaders—yet major outlets led with casualty claims from Hamas, without even naming them as the source. When the media erases Hamas’ responsibility and hides their role in this war, they’re not reporting—they’re protecting. pic.twitter.com/pPoxzrtUuH
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 21, 2025
CNN and others even quoted the Palestinian UN envoy, Dr. Riyad Mansour, as he lamented the bloodshed during the “holy month of Ramadan,” insisting that “no one would fight during Ramadan” in his tradition.
Evidently, it’s a fairly recent tradition, given that Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at Israeli cities on May 10, 2021 — squarely during Ramadan, just two days before the month ended.
Gaza’s “Health Ministry” is also the sole source behind this week’s new wave of headlines portraying apocalyptic scenes of carnage, with the death toll reportedly surging past 50,000.
Many anti-Israel biases of the Gaza fatality story are encapsulated in this article citing 50,000 killed. This is willful ignorance on the part of CNN and these journalists. Here is a review of how this article is a gross misrepresentation on many levels: 1/ pic.twitter.com/zAGK5F7eIj
— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) March 23, 2025
Once again, CNN led the pack in conferring legitimacy on Hamas’ numbers, describing the figure as a “grim milestone for a war with no end in sight, as Israel resumes fighting and warns of even tougher days ahead.”
Perhaps anticipating some readers might not take the Hamas-run ministry’s claims at face value, CNN turned to that other unimpeachable source of clarity on Israel — the United Nations. According to the UN, “the majority of deaths are women and children,” though “the true toll could be much higher, with many thousands believed to still be under the rubble.”
Some outlets didn’t even bother attributing the figure to Hamas’ health ministry, as a glance at Google’s top stories reveals headlines painting Israel as recklessly escalating an “expanded offensive,” with little context beyond the suggestion of malice or collective punishment.
The media, once again, appears to have learned nothing. If the Al-Ahli debacle offered any lessons, the breathless, copy-paste coverage of the past week showed they were quickly forgotten.
Some reminders for the journalists whose standards have slipped:
- The Hamas-run health ministry’s casualty counts have been repeatedly exposed as inflated and manipulated. A recent analysis by the Henry Jackson Society found male combatants were misclassified as women and children to skew the ratio.
- Claims that a “majority” of those killed are women and children have been debunked repeatedly.
- Israel continues to drop leaflets, send texts, and urge civilians to evacuate targeted zones. Hamas, meanwhile, orders civilians to stay put — so their deaths can be leveraged as propaganda — while its leaders flee to underground bunkers.
So yes, the war has resumed — and with it, the media’s war on accuracy. Although to be fair, it’s not clear they ever observed a ceasefire to begin with.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
TRUMP THREAT
Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
The post Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
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